A New Jersey 'Destination for Books'

A neighborhood that recently got its first independent general-interest bookstore in years is about to get a second. Word, the popular Brooklyn bookstore, is planning to open a new location in downtown Jersey City this summer.

By

Jennifer Weiss

Updated April 7, 2013 10:43 p.m. ET

When mother and daughter Carol and Aleta Valleau opened Tachair Bookshoppe last summer, their slogan was "Jersey City needs a bookstore."

And it did. The area has lost several booksellers in recent years, including a Barnes & Noble in Hoboken and a B. Dalton and small independent bookstore/gift shop in Jersey City, leaving buyers of new books little choice but to travel or shop online. Tachair, Scottish Gaelic for "meet," became a rarity in New Jersey's Hudson County, selling new and used books and hosting events, author readings and classes.

Now, a second independent bookstore is coming to the neighborhood: Word, a popular Brooklyn shop also known for its community events, is planning to open a new location soon on downtown Jersey City's Newark Avenue, less than half a mile from Tachair. Word's New Jersey outpost will be a 2,200-square-foot bookstore-cafe big enough for the buzziest of authors, and best-selling music and culture writer Chuck Klosterman is scheduled to read from his new book at Word's grand opening on July 9.

ENLARGE

Tachair Bookshoppe opened in Jersey City last year.
Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal

Metropolis

The competing independent bookstores will present a test of Jersey City's rapidly gentrifying downtown neighborhood, which has drawn an upscale, artsy crowd of transplants priced out of Manhattan and Brooklyn in recent years. Jersey City may have needed a bookstore but can it support two?

The owners of both Word and Tachair said they believe the answer is yes.

"I hope that there's room for all of us, it seems like there's room for all of us," said Christine Onorati, who owns Word with her husband, Vincent. "I think it's just a positive thing."

"With two bookstores, sort of the bookends on Newark Avenue, we can draw a crowd between us," Tachair's Carol Valleau said. Jersey City, she added, could become "a destination for books."

Word would add to a growing number of independent shops dotting the downtown Jersey City landscape, including Tachair, fashion boutiques and dessert shops, along with well-known New York names such as Barcade, Two Boots pizza and the gift shop Mxyplyzyk. Restaurants such as Thirty Acres and Madame Claude Cafe have garnered foodie accolades.

Ms. Onorati said she and her husband chose to expand Word into Jersey City after seeing the success their relatives had with Roman Nose, an Italian restaurant next door to the vacant building where they plan to open. The location is a stone's throw from the Grove Street Path station and the foot traffic it generates.

Ms. Onorati said Word would be different from Tachair, selling a wide variety of new books at full retail price. The Roman Nose would provide food for Word's cafe. Tachair (pronounced tah-HAIR) offers used paperbacks for $3 and hardcovers for $5 along with a small, curated selection of new books. It serves coffee and pastries, and its collection is largely based on what the Valleaus learned about Jersey City preferences while selling used books at markets in the past. Like Word, it hosts events, including a recent poetry reading that drew 20 people.

Related

Ms. Onorati said people who want a place to bring used books and buy books cheaper will still go to Tachair. She compared the situation to Word's in Greenpoint, where it coexists with several other book sellers in adjacent neighborhoods. She said she sees the competition as complementary.

In some ways, Word and Tachair will be similar. Both take pride in making recommendations to customers.

"It's not always just about getting exactly what you want," Aleta Valleau said. "It's about finding what you what."

Such niceties help fuel the unusual economics of independent book sellers. Even as large retailers such as Barnes & Noble retrench and the rise of digital publishing and online sales continues, independent bookstores are gaining a stronger foothold, particularly in New York, said Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, an independent bookseller trade association that is gaining members.

"The picture for us is nowhere near as bleak as often gets expressed," he said, attributing it in part to the "really unique role that [independent bookstores] play in the communities in which they are found."

New bookstores have popped up in recent years in Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and most recently, Bushwick.

"There was a realistic fear that the neighborhood couldn't necessarily support two bookstores at this point," said Matthew Winn, who opened Molasses Books last June in Bushwick, banking on the fact that no other book shops were nearby. Then, another one, Human Relations, opened within a month.

But the stores are different enough, Mr. Winn said, that people go to each for different reasons. "I think we're both doing OK," Mr. Winn said.

Jersey City resident Nick Urban, 29 years old, said he found it encouraging that another bookstore was opening, particularly one with a cafe.

"I don't think it'll be a problem," he said as he browsed books at Tachair, where he sometimes brings his laptop and sits and works for hours. "Have you ever seen the Starbucks on Grove Street? You can't even sit down in there."

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